Repartnering After Widowhood

Abstract

Our results confirm that constraints in marriage markets appear to contribute to a gender gap in the prevalence of repartnering after widowhood. Though the widowed prefer remarriage over cohabitation as a repartnering choice, there are important regional differences in repartnering that reflect cultural norms in the social acceptance of cohabitation. Socioeconomic disincentives to marriage do not appear to push the widowed into cohabitation.